A holiday potluck or a gathering season is coming up! The great part of Toronto is sharing cultures, tastes and even the holidays together with whatever back ground you are. Last year, I was invited to a Hanukkah holiday gathering at friend’s home and first time ate potato latkes (potato pancakes). It reminded me of Indian Pakora, and thought about making it with additional vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes and burdock!

Burdock seems to be an odd combination, but burdock is a quite flexible vegetable and it fits in many taste especially middle eastern taste! This latkes has 5 kinds of root vegetables to make the earthy taste. I also changed it from deep frying to baking. In the end, even this recipe was inspired by latkes, now it reminds me of Japanese tempura!

You can enjoy this earthy latkes with the traditional garnish such as sour cream, unsweetened apple sauce, chive and caviar or be creative to fit the need of your guests! (For vegan guests, it can be served with tahini sauce)

Ingredients for 25 earthy latkes

Olive oil or butter as needed for baking

20cm long Burdock root, graded

2 medium Potatoes, grated

1 medium Sweet Potatoes, grated

2 medium Carrots, graded

1 small Red Onion, sliced thin

3 to 4 tbsp. whole wheat flour (gluten free flour like chick pea, quinoa etc can be used to modify)

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. ground cumin

2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

sea salt & black pepper for taste

Garnish: As mentioned above, any of the traditional garnish goes well with this.

Directions

Preheat oven to 425° F. Grease baking sheet with olive oil or butter.

Mix grated burdock, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots, immerse them in cold water for 15 min.

In a strainer, drain the potato mixture and using a tea towel or cheese cloth, firmly press down to extract water (or you can use salad spinner to get extra water out.

Give the grated potatoes another squeeze to extract more water and place in a large bowl. Add onion, flour, baking powder, cumin, black pepper and salt, then mix all well. Add eggs and mix all well.

Using spoons, lightly roll mixture in a ball in to a medium to small cookie size. Place each ball onto a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten them to a desired thickness.

Place baking sheets in a oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden (baking time changes depending on the thickness). Using a spatula, flip over the latkes and continue to cook for another 10 to 15 minutes or until golden.